Tuesday was Jack's last rugby practice until September. So now what? Well gymnastics, of course. They are offering a class at his school for 10 weeks starting next week so he is going to join. He is super excited!
After his practice on Tuesday night a number of families stayed and ate dinner to celebrate the end of the season. It is there that I found out Jack's school is having a Garden Party on Friday from 9:30 am-11:30 am. I should have been aware of it and would have been had I read the school newsletter. At any rate, the Garden Party involves us sprucing up the school play area and garden. It is a community project to make the school look a little more tidy. We feel activities like this are really making us a part of the community. I suppose once you have a child in school that is bound to happen.
Stuart didn't train on Wednesday night and we hadn't gotten anything out for supper. Naturally that means ordering curry from the Curry House. It's our favorite! A relatively uneventful evening. We might have to stop this blog soon because we have nothing interested to tell anyone anymore. However, there are moments I want to make sure we never forget.
Thursday evening we did our usual; went to the Rugby Club, had dinner and let the kids run amuck. We have been trying to have Miss Janet not let Millie nap primarily because her naps turn into a night's sleep and then she won't go to sleep at night. Every since that darn 'Pass Fairy' came, Millie's bedtime is torturing all of us, including Millie. She was so cranky when we got home from Miss Janet's house on Thursday that I ended up rocking her to sleep. We let her sleep for an hour before we went to the Rugby Club, knowing she would be totally worn out after the evening out. And what a true reality that became. We met up with Sara, the very first person we met when coming to the UAE. We met her in the Phoenix airport. She's from Arizona as well. It was great to see her.
Showers and bed were in order once we got home, as they always are. Cathy, Claire and a friend of Claire's came back to our place for a bit and we had a cup of tea and biscuits. Try left around 11ish and I did my usual on Thursday evening, stayed up watching television, or not as is more often the case, and woke up around 1 am to go to bed.
Friday morning we were up and out by about 9. Stuart wanted to get to the school to get his pick of the jobs. He was concerned that we would be stuck doing something that was less desirable if we showed up late. He ended up helping make concrete (wearing more than he mixed I think). He also leveled the ground where the planter was going.
Jack painted some of the iron work that ended up on the walls and Millie and I sifted sand to get out any of the trash so they could dump in fresh sand. I am pretty sure Millie brought home more sand than she sifted but that's fine.
The dad's had wheel barrow races with the kids in the wheel barrows. There were kids activities for the entire time we were there. We all enjoyed our time there and the school looked better for it.
We had talked about going to the Golf Club after the work day but in the end found out we would have needed to make reservations because it was a horse racing weekend. So in the end we decided to head in our own directions to get necessary things done and then meet up at a later time at Jack's rugby coach's house. His wife is an ADEC teacher and their kids go to Jack's school.
A group of us invaded their house around 5 pm and had a BBQ. It was great fun. The one thing I do miss is having an outdoor space. Although we haven't had that or a few years because our yard in AZ is unfinished. So in reality I don't know what I miss.
It was quite an eventful night. Jack has had a number of friends learn to ride their bikes in the last few months and he has become very envious. We have taken the training wheels off his bike several times. The last time Stuart took them off he told Jack it was the last time and that they were staying off. We've gone out several times to help him and he freezes up and has no interest, usually resulting in tears which everyone knows I can't tolerate. The last time he did this was last week. So we decided rather than frustrate Jack (and ourselves) we would just ask Pop if once he was here, in a few weeks, he would teach Jack. Jack seemed pleased with that and so did Pop. Well, sad news for Pop but good news for Jack. He spent almost 2 hours at the BBQ on Louis's bike (Louis's dad is the rugby coach) and wouldn't you know, he is riding his bike like a pro. He gave up playing with his friends that night to practice on the bike. I think the kicker was knowing that about 5 minutes before he started trying to ride, Thalia (wade and Karen's daughter) learned how to ride as well....on the same bike.
When he spoke of learning how to ride his bike on Saturday morning he stated that Louis's mom taught him how to ride a bike. Truth is he just was so determined that he taught himself. No one ever ran behind him, but simply did a little instructing from the sidelines.
We took him out twice on Saturday to ride around. He was so very pleased with himself. It was a bit surreal and amazing how quickly he learned. While at the mall buying a helmet on Saturday, he just told
us how grown up he was now that he knew how to ride a bike with no training wheels. He may be hard to live with for a while. It's funny because I think I was at least 7 years old before I could ride my bike. Of course he's the size of a 7 year old if that makes a difference. Crazy!
Millie, as a result of all the bikes and scooters that were out on Friday evening, now knows how to ride a scooter. She was given one from Karen and rides it down the hall and back again. She continued o show off on Skype for my mom and dad when we spoke to them on Saturday evening. This experience would be much different if technology didn't allow us to Skype or call people from time to time. Skype helps me feel as if we get to see our families nearly every week.
Another week closer to Grammie and Pop's visit, and our two week spring break. Yahoo!
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